Entertaining Activity Audio

Nikito Domus World is a large, immersive activity centre in the Paris suburbs, featuring a wide range of entertainment for families, celebrations, team building and more. High quality, background sound was crucial to the experience, but its location meant it needed to be closely contained. Yamaha’s flexible range of installation speakers has helped to make the venue a major success.

Located in Rosny-sous-Bois, a mixed residential and industrial commune in the eastern Paris suburbs, Nikito Domus World is just 20 minutes by Metro from the city centre. Activities in the large, two-floor complex range from arcade games, immersive quizzes, darts and karaoke to crazy golf, axe throwing, bowling, trampoline rooms, escape rooms, laser quest and an e-karting circuit. With a restaurant, bar, stage area for live entertainment, a conference room and eight bookable ‘anniversary’ rooms for private events, it’s a labyrinth of different amusements for everyone.

The venue is located in a shopping mall, previously in a space previously occupied by a large store. Acoustic consultant and systems integrator Pierre Hugonnet of Paris-based Immersound installed the acoustic treatment in the basic shell, but he realised the planned audio system would not deliver the tight acoustic control needed in the 10,000m2 venue.

There were two critical factors that had to be satisfied. Firstly, it had to deliver high quality background sound which added to the sense of excitement, but without being overpowering for people who were not taking part, such as parents waiting for their children. Secondly, being in a concrete building with nearby retail outlets, it was essential not to disturb these businesses and their customers by minimising acoustic bleed and the transmission of vibrations through the structure.

Pierre knew the speakers for the project had to be carefully chosen for their quality, SPL and coverage, but also able to accept custom mountings. “We had to avoid letting sound travel through the concrete, but architectural safety meant we could not fix brackets directly to the beams,” he says.

Pierre’s experience in houses of worship and other public spaces led to him suggesting a combined approach of equipment and extra, localised acoustic treatment to deliver unified, ‘present’ sound, while maintaining the all-important containment.

Yamaha speakers were chosen, thanks to the wide product range which can solve many problems in this kind of situation, where very close attention to detail in the design is essential. A total of 128 were installed in a zoned system, managed by an MRX7-D signal processor.

VXS8 and VXS5 units were chosen for areas where speakers had to be fixed on the concrete beams, using custom-designed, spring loaded mounting brackets which isolated the sound from the concrete. These brackets reduced the height for speaker coverage, so that also had to be factored into the system design.

Where the ceiling is higher - for example in the indoor bar and restaurant areas - VXH series pendant speakers were specified, while in areas like bathrooms and corridors, VXC series celling speakers were installed. All were powered using Yamaha XMV series multi-channel amplifiers

“For me the secret is to set the level of the speakers individually, but then you need each speaker to be on a separate channel. The budget didn’t allow this, so there was a degree of compromise. But we delivered an even sound throughout the venue, with no volume hotspots,” says Pierre.

Meanwhile, in the eight ‘anniversary’ rooms Yamaha VXL series slimline array speakers were chosen, discreetly installed in pairs each side of a video screen. A Yamaha MTX5-D matrix processor provided 24 inputs and 16 outputs to accommodate any party. Each room also included a Audac Bluetooth receiver.

Nikito Domus World staff can control the volume of the various zones, either wirelessly using an iPad with a custom ProVisionaire Kiosk interface through Octavio Stream streaming audio players to choose the music in the different zones, or using an MCP1 surface mount touch panel in the main office.

In the live performance stage near the bar area, a Yamaha DM3 digital mixer and a NEXO PA system were installed, the latter also featuring customised spring mounts to minimise sound transmission through the structure. As well as being very popular with local artists during the evening, a screen was also installed to broadcast key sports fixtures for people in the bar area.

“In some amusement venues, no attention is paid to acoustics and it becomes a sensory overload. Here, despite being such a large space, it’s a very controlled sound which acoustically feels very comfortable,” says Pierre. “We have deliberately created a gentle, welcoming ambience. Keeping close control of the sound also made the installation and system tuning easier.”

Another advantage of the Yamaha solution is that it has the flexibility to evolve. For example, the opportunity to add scheduled announcements using the MRX7-D scheduler feature has already proved popular with the client.

Pierre also included a facility to remotely access the system, via a virtual private network (VPN). This allows him to monitor the system and solve any issues. “I hadn’t included remote access in previous systems but, having seen the benefits, I will include it in all future projects,” he says.

Installation of the system took a three-strong team two weeks, with Frédéric Borde from Yamaha France assisting system programming. “The relationship with Yamaha has been great. Frédéric Borde has been very helpful, always available to answer programming queries and to help find solutions. I have really appreciated that,” says Pierre.

“The client has said that the sound that is one of the most successful elements and is directly contributing to the quickly growing popularity of Nikito Domus World.”

It has been so successful that the client has already opened another 2,500m2 park in Franconville, featuring a similar Yamaha audio system again designed and installed by Pierre and his team. A further system will feature at another Nikito World venue, scheduled to open in October 2025.